Researchers from MIT and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases discovered the soft tissue at the back of the mouth enables the H1N1 virus to easily spread, according to dna.
Here are five things to know:
1. The recent discovery allows researchers to better understand how the virus evolves airborne transmissibility. Past studies indicate airborne transmissibility depends on whether a virus' hemagglutinin protein has the ability to bind to a specific receptor on the surface of human respiratory cells.
2. Some viruses bind well to the alpha 2-6 glycan receptors, which are mainly found in humans and other mammals. The 2009 strain was good at binding to the human alpha 2-6 receptors. In 2009, the H1N1 flu strain killed more than 250,000 people.
3. In the recent study, researchers mutated the H1N1 strain, which made the virus better able to bind the alpha 2-3 receptors, which are primarily found in birds. The researchers then infected ferrets and found the virus spread through the air just like the 2009 virus.
4. The mutated virus underwent a genetic reversion enabling it's HA protein to bind to alpha 2-6 glycan receptors in addition to the alpha 203 glycan receptors.
5. Researchers examined the tissue from various parts of the respiratory tract and found the viruses with the genetic reversion were most plentiful in the soft palate. Ninety percent of the viruses in this region had the reverted form on the virus three days after the initial infection.
